Page 26 of Painting Together a Family
“The girls can have milk too,” Dev suggested, going to the fridge and pulling out the jug, which he gave to Juniper to take out into the dining room when she came back.
“Can you handle cutting the cake?” Bryan asked Marley. She nodded and he handed her the cake slicer.
The timer went off just then and he chuckled. “Not bad timing, eh?”
“No, I’d say perfect.”
“If you can grab a couple of mugs, I’ll bring out the tea.” He mentally went over what they needed, making sure he wasn’t forgetting anything. Then he grabbed the tea cozy Mrs. Pereiso had made him and the tea and brought them into the dining room.
“Dylan, I need a hot plate for the tea kettle.” So much for making sure he had everything.
“’K, Daddy.” Dylan popped down from his chair and ran into the kitchen, coming back a moment later with the ceramic tile hot plate that he’d colored at the beginning of the summer.
“I made it,” Dylan said proudly as he put it down on the table.
Bryan gave everyone a moment to admire the abstract mess of colors before setting the teapot on it.
“Okay, who wants strawberry shortcake?”
There were a chorus of “me!”s and he helped Marley cut and hand out pieces of cake until everyone had a slice in front of them. The boys had been good, remembering to wait until everyone was served before eating. He nodded at them, and they grabbed their forks and dug in like they hadn’t just had supper twenty minutes ago. Juniper followed suit and Marley ate, too, but she was more delicate about it.
“This is delicious,” Dev informed him after a bite. “And good call on the strawberries, they’re stunning.”
“Thanks.” He poured tea out into their mugs before taking a bite of the cake. It had turned out nice, and the berries were exactly the right combination of sweet and tart, while the whipped cream melted on his tongue.
He and Dev were savoring theirs, so it was no surprise when all four kids were finished long before them.
“It’s not bedtime yet, is it?” Dylan asked.
Their usual schedule was bath and bedtime routine after dinner, even if they read in bed for a while, but they’d had supper a little earlier today and they had guests.
“Why don’t you guys pick a movie to watch?” he suggested, knowing that would at least have them calm by the time they did finally get to their bath.
Dylan knew how to get the TV on and get to the Disney app so he wasn’t worried about letting them do it themselves.
“You think they’ll be able to find something they all want to watch?” he asked Dev.
“It’ll be interesting to see, given the age gap.”
Bry wasn’t surprised whenBravecame up on the screen. “This is their favorite at the moment. I think it’s the three little brothers.”
“It’s always been a favorite of the girls, so I’m not surprised it’s what they landed on. Marley’s branching out into older movies. All the stuff aimed at the younger teens, but also Marvel movies and stuff like that. She’s good about watching younger stuff, too though, like the animated stuff. As long as it’s not too young.”
“So no Paw Patrol for her?”
“No. And Juniper’s lost her taste for it, too.”
That wasn’t surprising given their ages. He was just happy there were movies they all could agree on.
“So what are you working on now?” he asked, grabbing his tea and checking to see if it was still too hot to drink. He took an experimental sip and didn’t totally burn his lip off. So he took a bigger swallow.
“You mean besides making that asshole sorry he ever even thought about stealing our money?”
“Yeah. I meant more in the now that you’re finished with the penguins way.”
Dev nodded and told him about his most recent pieces.
Bryan listened, watching the way talking about his art lit Dev’s eyes up, the way his lips curved as he spoke, teeth peeking through now and then.
